FCEVs — Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

19 FCEVs, 1 hydrogen station, 5 months:

Results and facts from the EU-Lighthouse project “H2moves Scandinavia“

September 2012

2

Content

FCEVs and H2moves Scandinavia 3

FCEVs — Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles 4

Technical Data 5

Cumulative Distance Travelled 6

Distance Travelled between Refuellings 7

Refuelling by Weekday 8

Refuelling by Time of Day 9

FCEV Availability 10

FCEVs under Harsh Scandinavian Winter Conditions 11

How do Other FCEV Demonstration Projects Perform? 12

What do Customers Appreciate about FCEVs? 13

Map: Public Hydrogen Stations in Europe 14

HRS — Hydrogen Refuelling Station 16

Capacity 17

Cumulative Hydrogen Dispensed 18

Duration of Individual Refuellings 19

Individual Refuellings over 20

Availability 21

Time to Repair 22

Reasons for Temporary Downtime 23

Next-Generation Hydrogen Stations 24

Certification, Approval and Safety 25

Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking 26

Glossary, Links and Further Information 27

Impressum 28

3

FCEVs and H2moves Scandinavia

What are FCEVs?

Have you heard about FCEVs?

FCEV stands for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle. These cars drive purely electrical, the fuel is

gaseous hydrogen. It is only necessary to refuel once every 400-500 km, and it only

takes four minutes to do so! The only emissions are droplets of pure water.

Have you driven a FCEV yet? It is the only way to get an accurate impression of the fas-

cinating “silent car” with instantly available torque. Though they are still quite rare, you

will soon be able to buy one of your own, as they will be available at dealers beginning

in 2015.

What is „H2moves Scandinavia“?

It is a demonstration project funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking

to accelerate the market introduction of FCEVs. The aim of the project is to demon-

strate the readiness of these cars and the refuelling stations they require. From current

daily operations, we collect real world data and publish the results to answer questions

such as: How far do the cars drive? How reliable are they?

What H2moves Scandinavia did so far:

We run a public hydrogen station in Oslo (Gaustad) / Norway

We operate 19 FCEVs in Oslo/Norway, and Denmark

We organise public events, such as a road tour through Europe in Autumn 2012

featuring public test drives

What can you expect from FCEVs? Find out yourself on the following pages and online

at www.scandinavianhydrogen.org/h2moves

4

T he three types of cars that are part of the H2mS project look the same as their

”regular“ counterparts, but you will notice the difference as soon as you start their

silent engines: These cars drive purely on electricity powered by hydrogen!

Hyundai ix35 FCEV: 4 Cars

T he latest ix35 FCEV boasts levels of con-

venience and performance similar to

those found in vehicles with conventional

internal combustion engines. The ix35 FCEV

combines the best of both worlds — the

safety of an elegant and proven mass-

production car with the benefits of hydrogen

fuel cell technology — while providing

personal mobility with zero compromise and

zero emissions.

Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL: 10 Cars

T he Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL, an

electric vehicle with fuel cell offers eve-

rything that people expect from a Mercedes-

Benz: High comfort and safety as well as no

reduction in interior space and boot capacity.

Customers will not have to sacrifice any

driving pleasure either — the electric motor

has a peak performance of 100 kW/136 hp

and a maximum torque of 290 Nm, which is

available from the first rotation.

Th!nk City Car with Fuel Cell Range

extender: 5 Cars

T he Th!nk — already well-known in Scan-

dinavia — is a two-seater, battery-

electric vehicle. The Danish company, H2

Logic, has retrofitted five of these vehicles

with hydrogen tanks and fuel cells.

FCEVs—Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

The sound of silence

5

FCEVs—Technical Data

FCEVs can drive up to 525 km on one refuelling.

W hat is your typical daily driving

distance?

L et’s say you drop your children off at

school in the morning before driving

to work. In the afternoon you go shop-

ping quickly before picking your children

up again. In the evening you meet friends

for dinner. This makes your daily travel-

ling distance about 40 km. So, if your car

has a range of about 400 km, you will

need to refuel only every 10th working day

or every second week. And this refuelling

only takes three minutes.

Here is one of the Hyundai ix35 FCEVs on the

highway. The long range of today’s FCEVs, and

the smooth driving experience make them

perfectly suited for longer distance drives.

The labelling on the sides is the only thing that

makes them look different from the conven-

tional ix35.

6

Opening ceremony of the H2mS refuelling

station in Oslo in November of 2011, with

Fabian Stand (Lord Mayor of Oslo), Jacob

Krogsgaard (CEO of H2 Logic) and a Mercedes-

Benz B-Class F-CELL refuelling.

Cumulative Distance Travelled

In total, our cars drove around the world 1.7 times in 5.5 months.

O n November 21st, 2011, the official

opening ceremony for the H2mS

hydrogen station took place, and our 19

cars started their mission — spreading

the word about FCEVs, and collecting

data. From that day until the end of April

2012, our cars drove more than 70,000

km — a distance greater than the circum-

ference of the earth, which is about

40,000 km.

F CEVs are emission-free — all they

leave behind are a few droplets of

water. Conventional cars would have

emitted 12.5 tons CO2 (well-to-wheel)

while driving these 71,788 km.

T he cars are driven by normal, every-

day customers, in company fleets,

and for public outreach.

7

Distance Travelled between Refuellings

The more experienced the driver, the greater the trust in the FCEV.

O ur customers refuel significantly

more often than necessary. The

Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL has a range

of 380 km, the Hyundai goes up to 525

km, and the Th!nk has a range of 250 km.

Other fuel cell demonstration projects,

such as NREL and CEP (see page 12) show

similar results for the distance travelled

between refuellings. The reason for this is

known as “range anxiety”. As the hydro-

gen station network is rather thin, drivers

tend to refuel each time they pass one.

Over time, we have observed an increase

in the average distance travelled before

refuelling. The more familiar one gets

with the car, the more one trusts the

remaining range automatically predicted

by the vehicle — and the reliability of the

hydrogen stations (see page 21).

The predecessor of the Hyundai ix35 FCEV: a

Hyundai Tucson FCEV. The tanks are in the

back, the electric motor is under the hood.

8

Refuelling by Weekday

Refuellings are evenly distributed throughout the work week.

This is the refuelling receptacle of a Hyundai

ix35 FCEV. The nozzle gets imposed and high

pressure is built up. In order to prevent people

from driving away from the station without

having detached the nozzle first, FCEVs can be

refuelled only when the vehicle is shut down.

O ne of the differences between con-

ventional and hydrogen refuelling

stations is the maximum number of cars

that can refuel directly after one another.

The number of these back-to-back (b2b)

refuellings is limited, because of the lim-

ited quantity of hydrogen at high pres-

sure. The official number of b2b refuel-

lings for the H2mS Oslo Gaustad station is

five.

T he graph above shows the rather

homogeneous spread of individual

refuelling events on working days. Only

on weekends is the frequency significant-

ly lower. We do not yet have an explana-

tion for the lower number of refuellings

on Thursdays.

9

Refuelling by Time of Day

Refuelling is evenly distributed during office hours.

H 2mS stations are open 24/7. As the

graph above shows, nearly all refu-

ellings (95%) currently take place be-

tween 7 in the morning and 8 at night.

Although there is a peak at 1 PM, with

11% of all refuellings, the distribution

between 7 AM and 5 PM is otherwise

generally even — between 5 and 11%.

C onclusion: Although there is a limi-

tation to the number of consecutive

refuellings, this limitation will hardly be

experienced in daily operation. See also

page 20.

Refuelling a hydrogen powered car is just as

simple as refuelling a gasoline powered car.

Even the refuelling receptacle is at the usual

location. One of the main differences is the

infrared interface between the most advanced

hydrogen cars and refuelling stations, where

information is exchanged on the pressure

level inside the tank and the termination of

the refuelling process.

10

The ’heart’ of this Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-

CELL is hidden beneath the trunk. One can see

one of the hydrogen tanks on the left side and

the fuel cell stacks further to the right. In the

individual fuel cells, hydrogen reacts with

oxygen from the air to produce electricity and

water vapour.

FCEV Availability

Cars reached up to 100% availability.

W orldwide, there is no car manu-

facturer currently producing

FCEVs on a large scale. All H2moves Scan-

dinavia vehicles were produced in small

batches. Reaching an availability of

between 99 and 100% is an excellent

result and demonstrates that some

improvements still need to be made, but

the technology is on its way to being

ready for large scale production and com-

mercialization.

A vailability times were calculated on

the basis of minutes. We expect all

our 19 vehicles to be ready-to-use 24/7

year-round, whether they are being used

as part of a company fleet or for other

purposes.

11

Mercedes-Benz B-Class

F-CELL: this top-view

illustration shows the

location of all three

hydrogen tanks and the

entire fuel cell system.

FCEVs under Harsh Scandinavian Winter Conditions

Today‘s FCEVs can be operated any time of the year.

W inter time in Scandinavia brings

with it one of the coldest und

most unfriendly climates in Europe — the

perfect reason for us to test drive the

FCEVs exactly there. As fuel cell cars leave

behind only pure water which freezes

below 0°C, low temperatures are an issue.

Or should we say: used to be an issue.

O ur customers reported no problems

starting their cars — no matter

how low the outside temperature. One

customer even reported on a trip in Nor-

way with temperatures of -27° C! The car

started as normal, and brought them

back home safely.

12

How do Other FCEV Demonstration Projects Perform?

Three demonstration projects yield comparable results.

T he NREL (National Renewable Energy

Laboratory) runs the largest FCEV

demonstration project in the world,

which is financially supported by the U.S.

Department of Energy (DoE). A total of

183 FCEVs and 25 hydrogen stations have

been a part of the project since 2005.

C EP (Clean Energy Partnership),

located in Berlin and Hamburg, is

the most relevant German FCEV demon-

stration project.

o ur Scandinavia-based project

confirms several of the results of

these other projects, such as the annual

distance travelled and the low average

refuelling quantity per refuelling which

rises over time.

(A: through 2009 Q4, B: since 2009 Q4)

This screen in Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-

CELL dashboard, illustrates the previ-

ous, present and average hydrogen

consumption.

13

What do Customers Appreciate about FCEVs?

The silence of these cars are their most impressive feature.

W e conducted 11 interviews with

our customers, and asked them

which technical aspects they especially

enjoy that are unique for FCEVs. Two

representative responses were: “I am

fascinated by the torque and the silence.”

and “The FCEV exceeded my expectations

— especially the instantly available

torque.” Not just the drivers are fascinat-

ed. One told us: “My 13 year old kid

“forced” me to demonstrate the car at

school to his class mates. The FCEV was

clearly the most special and prestigious

car around.”

A nother customer, who unfortunate-

ly for him only has access to a

company fleet car: “After driving a FCEV,

you don’t want to get back to your old

car.”

All 19 of our cars are in customer hands. Nevertheless, we

sometimes organize public events where anyone can take a

car for a 10-minute test drive. Try it and enjoy the silence in

the city, the acceleration on the highway and the knowledge

that all you are leaving behind is a fine trail of water droplets.

14

Public Hydrogen Stations in Europe

The blue dots indicate those hydrogen refuelling stations currently being operated that

provide public access and match the requirements of major car companies.

15

Public Hydrogen Stations in Europe

16

HRS—Hydrogen Refuelling Station

Already 11 hydrogen stations in Scandinavia.

H 2moves Scandinavia owns and operates one HRS. This state-of-the-art station,

which opened in Oslo on November 21st 2011, operates in compliance with the

latest international hydrogen refuelling standard — SAE J2601. This standard ensures

safe and fast refuelling in under four minutes. The hydrogen is produced onsite, and is

based on Norwegian electricity, of which more than 90% is obtained from renewable

hydro and wind power sources.

H 2 Logic has built the

refuelling station in Oslo,

as well as several more through-

out Scandinavia.

T oday, the HRS network in

Scandinavia is one of the

densest in the world —

additional stations are under

construction or in the planning

stages right now.

17

Capacity of Oslo (Gaustad) HRS

Another 1,383 FCEVs can currently be supplied in Oslo.

O ur HRS can perform 350 refuellings

per week. Assuming the same

capacity for each of the 4 stations in Oslo,

a total of 1,400 FCEVs can be supplied in

this area. At the moment, there are 17

FCEVs in Oslo. So, an additional 1,383

FCEVs could be operated in Oslo today.

This photo shows the user interface of the H2moves Scandina-

via hydrogen refuelling station. Hydrogen is stocked at a pres-

sure of 88 MPa (880 bar), which allows for long travelling

distances between refuelling.

The station is certified according to the international standard

SAE J2601 A-70. The tricky part when refuelling the hydrogen

tank in the car is that the fast-flowing hydrogen gas gets hot

in the vehicle tank. Therefore it is pre-cooled to enable you to

refuel within a maximum of four minutes.

18

Cumulative Hydrogen Dispensed at Oslo (Gaustad) HRS

342 kg emission-free hydrogen for 3,420 km emission-free driving.

O ur station dispensed 342 kg purest

hydrogen within the first five

months. With each kg, a car can drive

about 100 km. Just imagine if a gas

fuelled car could drive 100 km on just one

kilogram of fuel…

T he cars within our project, H2moves

Scandinavia, refuelled at 11 different

stations within the first 5 months, one of

which is our Gaustad HRS.

O ne of our customers says,

“Refuelling hydrogen doesn’t stink.

Although I sometimes liked the smell of

gasoline…”

In April 2012, these two Hyundai ix35 FCEV

drove from Oslo to Monte Carlo, only accom-

panied by curious journalists. You can roughly

follow their route on the map in the middle of

this brochure. They refuelled at various sta-

tions throughout Europe.

19

Duration of Individual Refuellings

Fully refuelling for purely electric driving in less than 4 minutes.

W hen refuelling a gasoline car, the

liquid gasoline is pouring into

the tank. The surplus air can freely leave

the tank at the side of the nozzle. This is

different for a hydrogen car, which

doesn’t refuel volume but pressure.

W hen a hydrogen tank is nearly

empty, the residual pressure is

around 2 MPa (20 bar). When the nozzle

is attached to the car, the tank of the car

has a leak-proof connection to the

hydrogen station. Not a single hydrogen

molecule can escape into the air. At

modern hydrogen stations, the hydrogen

is pre-cooled down to –40°C and is refu-

elled at a pressure of 88 MPa. These two

parameters enable a fast refuelling to 70

MPa — within a maximum of four

minutes, as the graph shows.

There is only one global standard for conducting hydrogen refuel-

ling. This ensures that any type of fuel cell vehicle may fuel at any

station, anywhere in the world. This standard also defines how to

pre-cool hydrogen during refuelling, to avoid overheating of the

tank, thus enabling very fast refuelling.

20

Individual Refuellings over Time at Oslo (Gaustad) HRS

Refuelling is evenly distributed throughout the working week.

O ur station can refuel up to 5 cars

one after another. Our data show

that this number of back-to-back refuel-

lings is no limitation for every day driving.

T he graph shows how often several

cars refuelled in one or two hours

within 4 months. There is no clear

tendency towards a specific time or day

or combination thereof. So unless we say

”Hydrogen is free on Monday mornings at

10 am“ there won‘t be a shortage.

A Th!nk is being refuelled. Its tank capacity is

1,5 kg.

Hydrogen at the station in Oslo (Gaustad) is

priced to ensure comparable fuel costs per

driven kilometre as those incurred using a

gasoline powered vehicle.

21

Excellent result: HRS was available 96% of the time.

Availability of Oslo (Gaustad) HRS

F or customer convenience our station

is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

T he station is located on the premises

of a research institute close to a

major ring road. Special staff, consisting

of employees from that institute, has

been trained to do small repairs.

W e also established an SMS

service. One of our customers

states, “It is pretty convenient, I can text

with my favourite hydrogen station.

When I send an SMS to the station, I

instantaneously get a response with the

status of the station.”

This is the highly visible, and completely accessi-

ble emergency button at the Oslo (Gaustad)

Hydrogen refuelling station. With the exception

of functional tests, it has yet to be used.

There are also hydrogen sensors inside the sta-

tion that would trigger a safe emergency shut-

down if a leak were to occur.

22

Time to Repair Oslo (Gaustad) HRS

Mostly, station has been down for no longer than half an hour.

T he station manufacturer and opera-

tor, H2 Logic, managed to solve 65%

of down-time situations within less than

half an hour. This is an excellent result

given the present demonstration nature

of the station. The ultimate goal however,

is to ensure close to 100% availability of

the hydrogen refuelling station network.

A lso, the Danish manufacturer has

online access to the station and can

therefore modify settings remotely from

their desks in Denmark which also helps

shorten repair times.

The safety precautions are the same as for conventional filling

stations:

The local fire brigade received a manual in case of emergencies

Copies of this document are also located directly at the station

and inside the next building

There are signs that prohibit open flames

23

Reasons for Temporary Downtime at Oslo (Gaustad) HRS Electric components are reliable, time for upgrades negligible.

A record is kept when the station is

out of operation for whatever

reason. Most down-times have been very

short. In 43 % of the records, the station

has been running again within 10

minutes; in 66% of the reports it was

fixed within an hour. In total, there were

26 records between January and April

2012.

N ot a single safety-relevant incident

has occurred so far. By safety-

relevant we mean that a person was

injured, the environment was polluted or

damaged, or a hydrogen leak occurred.

None of these things happened.

At the Oslo station a graphical

wall briefly describes the project

and lists the project partners.

However, during a single refuel-

ling you probably will not be able

to read everything, as refuelling

generally takes less than four

minutes. So, we recommend you

come back another time.

24

Next-Generation Hydrogen Stations

Producing high quality hydrogen at lowest costs.

H ydrogen is produced in many ways, but must be

very pure — nearly 100%, for use in fuel cell

electric vehicles (FCEVs).

Small impurities in hydrogen fuel can damage fuel

cells severely, and must therefore be reliably identified

and removed.

We are developing new, more efficient methods to

predict and develop strategies to mitigate impurities

utilising experience from a wide range of applications

and our international network.

P roducing hydrogen from water and

renewable power is a zero-emission

method, but an expensive one.

Electricity prices are variable e.g.

because of fluctuating wind intensity;

hydrogen can be produced when elec-

tricity is cheapest.

Our dynamic, on-line optimisation

reduces the cost of hydrogen production

from electricity.

Finding Hydrogen Stations

Initially, there will be few hydrogen

refuelling stations. We are therefore

developing applications for

smartphones, the Web, and SMS, so

customers can conveniently find the

nearest HRS.

25

Certification, Approval and Safety

Challenges for hydrogen can be handled.

A pproval issues need to be considered for the upcoming market introduction of

hydrogen as an energy carrier for FCEVs in Scandinavia. Required approvals for

HRSs and FCEVs need to be achieved in an efficient and smooth way without

jeopardizing safety, measurement accuracy or hydrogen quality.

Safety and Emergency Plan

A safety and emergency plan is in place for

all H2moves Scandinavia hardware,

including the HRS in Oslo and the movea-

ble HRS that accompanies the road tour.

Expert Institutes

S P Technical Research Institute of Sweden

and TÜV SÜD, Germany, have both been

involved in the work on these issues.

Early Measures

I nvolving permit and approval authorities

early in the process has been a valuable tac-

tic for facilitating permits/approvals.

Further suggested measures for HRSs approvals:

Development of a European safety standard for HRSs,

based on the coming new edition of ISO 20100

implementation of harmonized procedures for estab-

lishing hydrogen refuelling stations (hydrogen quality,

metering, refuelling process)

support for regulatory and permit authorities

26

Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking

We accelerate market entry of fuel cells and hydrogen technologies.

W ith a ring-fenced budget of nearly

one € billion between 2008 and

2013, this unique European public-private

partnership is intended to accelerate the

development of FCH technologies in order

to enable their commercial deployment

as of 2015.

T he budget is operated to annually

launch competitive and open calls

for proposals.

S ome 100 projects, among them

H2moves Scandinavia, are currently

supported and run in parallel by this joint

undertaking.

The multi-annual implementation plan, divided into 5 application areas, guides program activities,

and explains the planning for research and demonstrations in the long term. It also sets the tenta-

tive budget breakdown by area.

27

Links and Further information

Glossary

H2moves Scandinavia: www.scandinavianhydrogen.org/h2moves

Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL: www.fuel-cell-e-mobility.com, fuelcell@daimler.com

Hyundai ix35 FCEV: http://worldwide.hyundai.com/WW/Innovation/Eco/

ZeroEmissionVehicle/index.html

JayShim@Hyundai.com, SaeHoon@Hyundai.com

Th!nk: These FCEVs are refurbished, regular, battery-electric Th!nks.

There is no further development and manufacturing of them.

Hydrogen Stations: www.h2logic.dk, info@h2logic.com

Please be aware that if you want to do additional calculations, you should not mix data from

different graphs. The data presented here are comparable within each graph, but not necessarily

between graphs.

Photos: Daimler AG (pages 1,4,9,10,11,12,24,26), Hyundai Motor Europe (1,4,5,7,8), H2 Logic

(6,16,20,23,24,25,26), Jöran Fagerlund/Hydrogen Sweden (1,3,4,13), LBST GmbH (17,21,22),

Bjørnar Kruse/ZERO (18), SINTEF (24), Kartverket (24), Peter Bremer/SP (25), Thomas Maxe (25),

Linde AG (26)

Further references: www.wetteronline.de (page 10), NREL www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/

pdfs/54860.pdf (page 12, accessed 20.7.2012), CEP www.cleanenergypartnership.de (page 12),

Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway partnership SHHP (page 16)

b2b back-to-back refuellings at a hydrogen station

FCEV Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle

FCH JU Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking

H2mS H2 (Hydrogen) moves Scandinavia

HRS Hydrogen Refuelling Station

MPa Mega-Pascal (1 MPa = 10 bar, therefore: 70MPa = 700 bar)

NEDC New European Driving Cycle

Publisher

H2moves Scandinavia

H2mS Coordination Office

LBST Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik GmbH

Daimlerstrasse 15

85521 Munich/Ottobrunn, Germany

Press Contact

Dr. Ulrich Bünger

H2moves Scandinavia Coordinator

info@h2moves.eu

Tel +49 (0) 89 60 81 10-0

Download link

www.scandinvianhydrogen.org/h2moves